Gourmet Backcountry Food

Can't resist. Have to do one more before going to bed.

Pesto Pasta Salad. This is a WTS fave.

Recipe: Dry noodles, powdered white cheddar, dehydrated veggie mix, Ghee, dry mushrooms, Amore pesto sauce packet.
Gear: A big pot for a big group. We used a 4.5L REI pot here, which gave hearty portions for our group of 9 on this particular trek.
Howto: Fill pot with a bunch of water. Boil. Add noodles and veggies and cook til noodles are soft. Drain. Add cheese and mushrooms and Ghee. Mix. Add pesto sauce.

Difficult to do in the back country; in too much of a hurry to eat! :-)

Sounds like a yummy idea! Mine are all "FBC" type recipes, but I do have several that I did not get from Sarah Kirkconnel's website! Photos, though, will be taken at home.

Any particular deadline?

Edit, later: Because I've posted those recipes on other forums at various times, and may want to again, there's probably a copyright issue here, so I'll have to forget it. Sorry!

Dump the water into a separate pot and start off your gourmet meal with a nice simple soup. Add soy sauce, curry powder, chili oil, onion powder, dried herbs, (not necessarily all of that, but whatever works for your tastes, e.g., garlic powder, ginger powder, etc.) You could even bring miso soup packets. You can see I lean toward the Asian side, but you could also bring a chicken noodle pack. It's enviromentally friendly, keeps you hydrated, it's easy, and adds variety and another course to a meal.

What a great tip!!

As a trip guide for Arizona State University's outdoor rec program, one of the special messages we tried to teach was that camping doesn't require eating crappy food! So this is a subject dear to my heart, and I'll have to refrain from spending a whole workday typing up recipes. :-)
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TORTILLA PIZZAS

This is a lovely, easy meal for a group — probably easiest to spread these ingredients across 6 or more. The concept is a "pizza" made with an 8-10" tortilla and quality canned (or rather, preserved) ingredients, heated over the fire in a regular mid-sized frying pan. [Photo is courtesy of SimplyRecipes, all rights reserved. If that's an issue, Moderator Person, please feel free to remove! :-)] Since this is a weight-conscious audience, I assume that before the trip most folks will remove the packaged ingredients from their jars/cans, etc., and place them in ziplocs or the like.

Ingredients:
– Sun-dried tomatoes
– Tube of tomato paste
– 1 or 2 8-10" tortillas per pizza per person; 2 pizzas is usually generous for the hungry
– shredded mozzarella
– fire-roasted red bells pepper
– button mushrooms
– pepperoni
– olive oil or ghee

Brush the pan with some olive oil or ghee, then bring it to high heat over the fire. While it heats, thin the tomato paste slightly with water to a typical pizza sauce thickness.
Once the pan is hot, lightly golden-brown one side of a tortilla, then flip; poke holes in the bubbles that form in the tortilla. Add the ingredients with the mozzarella on the bottom to help keep the tortilla from getting soggy. This works best if you have a lid of some sort to hold in heat to melt the mozzarella. Heat til everything is warm and the cheese melts.
Obviously, it takes only slight modifications to Mexicanize this into quesadillas: shredded Mexican four-cheese blend, some refried beans, canned chicken, etc.

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JAMBALAYA
As a geology major in Louisiana, I learned that Cajun food can even be enjoyed while camping. I also learned that even true Cajuns rarely bother to make jambalaya from scratch without an assist from a boxed mix. All boxed jambalaya is not equal, however! The best on the market is by Tony Chachere's, and Zatarain's is a close second. One of the best things about this dish in the backcountry is just how flavorful it is, and how little you have to do to make it that way — the seasonings are already in the box (and in the sausage, if you use it).

For the backcountry/backpacking (i.e., no cooler) version of jambalaya, one could certainly opt to have this meal on any day of your trip with only packaged Bumble Bee or Chicken of the Sea chicken for the protein. If you have this on your first night out, though, it's safe to use "fully cooked" packaged andouille sausage, making the meal MUCH more flavorful. Again, this audience will probably choose to remove as much packaging as possible — but with that said, I wouldn't recommend breaking the seal on the meat products. If your local grocer does not carry andouille sausage, you may grudgingly substitute the second choice, a "fully cooked" packaged Italian sausage; third choice is something else claiming to be a Cajun sausage, like those by Bar-S. It is NOT recommended to use other types of smoked sausage like kielbasa. It just tastes weird.

For vegetarians: to my surprise, using Morningstar Farms Italian Sausage for a no-meat version comes out very tasty as well. It accentuates the Italian part of the dish's heritage nicely. For strict vegetarians/vegans, though, do remember to check the boxed mix's ingredients — there's likely some dehydrated chicken stock. The bouillion cubes are really optional, but I think they add a lot for very little weight.

Ingredients:
– Tony Chachere's (or Zatarain's) boxed jambalaya mix; follow serving size guidance on box
– Hillshire Farms or Bruce Aidell's cajun andoille sausage
– Pouch(es) of Bumble Bee or similar chicken
– 1 large bell pepper
– 1 medium onion
– 2 small/medium roma tomatoes (they're the sturdiest choice)
– (optional) 3-4 clove-segments of garlic
– 2-3 chicken bouillion cubes

The key here is that a couple token fresh ingredients really make this a home run. Wrap the pepper and tomato up to protect them a bit and it all should work out pretty well. Slice the veggies and andouille, and sautee them together in your large pot just long enough for the veggies to wilt a little. Separately heat the suggested amount of water to near boiling, taking that opportunity to dissolve the bouillion cubes. Combine everything with the hot water/stock, and add the jambalaya mix. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium and simmer for 25 minutes; stir once about halfway through to make certain the rice is not scorching to the bottom of the pot. If all the water hasn't been absorbed at 25 minutes, cook for another 5 minutes with the lid off.

Enjoy!!

I'll post pics and recipies later, but some of my faves are:

(none of these are exactly ul, but when the rest of your gear is light, you can carry more food)

baked brie
chanterelle puff pastries
chantrelle and morel pizza
backcountry sashimi and sushi rolls
enchiladas
baked trout and wild mushroom crostinis

and a bunch more….

+1000 regarding Tony Chachere’s and Zatarain’s cajun/creole box dinners. They are not freezer bag cooking but well worth the added fuel weight for an occasional meal time treat.

Folks who don’t mind a bit of heat in their meal might like Zatarain’s Chicken Creole Rice Mix. It needs diced tomatoes and chicken but they can be dehydrated at home (chicken that has been pressure cooked … any from a can or foil pack). If you enjoy more than a bit of heat, substitute Rotel Diced Tomatoes & Green Chilies for the diced tomatoes.

The ingredients weighing about 12 oz produce 6 cups of food, 3 large servings.

I'm not sure how widely available they are but we have found the dry Bear Creek Soup mixes to be very good and are consistently one of our favorite meals on the trail. A large bag mixes with 8 cups of water. The key is to add extra ingredients which makes the soup taste better and go further.

1. Tortilla Soup – add a cup of dehydrated corn or other vegetables while cooking, can also add dehydrated chicken or other meat. Then we bring along a bag of chips that we break up on the top when serving (provides nice crunch). Can also top with some grated cheese.

2. Broccoli Cheese soup – The scouts dont like the name but the soup is great and doesnt taste at all like broccoli. We have added some extra cheese (though it probably doesnt need it)and dehydrated potatos, and always bring lots of croutons for topping

3. Chicken Noodle soup – bring some extra noodles, extra chicken, and any vegetables you like to add, and croutons for topping.

4. They just expanded their offerings and there are some real good looking other options that I look forward to trying – but all of the above have been vetted.

Even with the added ingredients this is a really light meal when you consider we are generally able to feed 8 hungry people off of one of these meals. You need at least a 2.5L pot to cook all this in (or divide between 2 separate pots) – you do need to cook the soup for 10 minutes or a bit more so it uses more fuel than some of the meals suggested.

I don't have a recipe, but I wanted to mention some great tortillas that would be good for the tortilla pizzas above or just about any backpacking application. They are Trader Joe's tortillas de mi Abuela (Grandmother's tortillas) corn and wheat tortillas. These 6 inch tortillas are very soft to start with and remain fairly soft on the trail despite a lack of preservatives. I find them more substantial that the plain while four tortillas and very tasty as well. The are $2.00 for seven tortillas at the Sacramento stores, although the price may vary at other locations.

Everyone I've fed this to has DEVOURED IT….. not sure its gourmet, but worthy of mention.

For three people this is my recipe:

2 boxes of pasta roni angel hair garlic and herb pasta. Repack in freezer bag with powdered milk, powdered butter, lots of crushed red pepper, cayenne, black pepper, dried onion flakes, and a dash of garlic powder. Bring a foil pouch of precooked chicken chunks (no drain) then dump the small amount of juice in the pot about halfway through cooking process to absorb the flavors…… I've found a one pot prep had a more uniform taste than fbc with this. Top with parmesan cheese and be ready. To be FULL,

Boil water on the trail, add all ingredients, simmer or boil, let stand in cozy and reboil as needed to save fuel. No need to drain per recipe! Pasta cooks very quick.

Spicy it up with asparagus, or whatever else you fancy! This is on my menu for tomorrow nights trip

Pasta e Olio or Spighetti and Oil
Ingredients:
1/3 pound fine angel hair per person, adjust water accordingly.
2 cups water
1-2oz olive oil
1/2 tsp dried garlic
1/4 tsp cracked black pepper
1/4-1/2 tsp red pepper
salt (to taste)

Direction:
Boil water and cook spighetti about 3 minutes, let stand.
In cup, add olive oil, 1/2 tsp water, dried garlic, salt, black pepper. Heat untill water boils off. Add red pepper. Continue cooking till red pepper starts to brown and garlic turns brown…about 30sec to 1 minute on medium/low heat. Add about 2oz of water from spighetti. Boil and remove from heat.
Drain spighetti (I make a cup of cocoa spiced with a dash of ground red pepper.) Dump the oil/garlic mix over the sphietti and wait 1 minute…preferably in a covered pan.
Eat.
Total time is about 7-10 minutes.

This is a very basic recipie lending itself to all sorts of embelshments. I believe the "French" style is just garlic and olive oil. Alla Oila or something like that. American versions are just parified butter over pasta. Little macaroni's (Orzo, pastina, etc), shells, and other types are used with butter, too. Bits of shredded meat, anchovies, bacon, rehydrated jerkey, mushrooms, tomatoes, etc can be added. Note that rice can be substituted for spighetti but requires a longer cook time. Alone it is quick and nasty calories on the trail.

James….How many servings does ths serve?

AND

Do you have a "feeling" for the calories without additions?

1 lb of Ground Beef
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup evaporated milk
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper

At home, brow all ingredients until beef is brown and onions are translucent.

Crumble mixture on two sheets of the dehydrator and dry at 155 degrees for 4 hours. Pack in a Zip Lock bag

Sauce:

Two 8 oz. cans tomato sauce. Dry on plastic sheet for fruit leather. Dry at 135 degrees for 4 hours. Roll the fruit leather and split in half for a zip lock bag

Pasta

DiCecco capelllini or angel hair–2 minute cook time. Break in half and cook in camp separate from the meat and sauce.

"James….How many servings does ths serve?

AND

Do you have a "feeling" for the calories without additions?"

Ken, this is pretty much per person. I have served 4 on the trail with it, 1# of spigetti and about 4 ounces of olive oil. It is easily scaled up or down for large groups or solo hikers. The actual recipie is kind of a throw together. After starting water to boil for spigetti, I set up the oil/spices, getting ready for cooking. The water at the end sort of helps clean the cup out. It * does* require two cups for maximum efficiency. If you are willing to bury the water from the pasta, only one is needed. Clean up, as with any oily food, is always a bit difficult, soap and scrubbie help.

Calories are around 105/oz for spighetti, about 251/oz for olive oil. So, for 1/3 pound of spighetti: 5-1/3*105=~557. Olive Oil is 1.5*251=377. Total is just over 900C (933C.) It weighs about 8z, including all spices/.5 oz jerky. So, it is not really all that calorie dense at 116/oz but not real bad, ignoring the jerky.

Macaroni/spighetti products have quite a bit of protiens, albiet incomplete protiens, about 3.5g/ounce or about 18.5 per meal. Iron, B-vitamins, and folic acid are also present in significant amounts, depending on the brand. You cannot live on it, like any other food, but, it has a lot of long term carbs and fat caloies.

BTW: Crumbled bacon goes well in it, too.

I'd posted some meals I like w/o the recipies… here is the way I make them

Backcountry sashimi/sushi: (you need to know a little about cutting sashimi to make this, and a sharp knife, but other than that, it's a breeze.. And obviously, this is a first day on the trail meal)..
You'll need:
Sushi grade fish
Soy sauce packets
True orange, lemon, and lime packets
Wasabi powder (to taste)
Avocado (if you like that)
Instant rice
Nori
Sirachi sauce packets (if desired)
Rice vinegar packets

Cut a block of sushi grade Ahi, himachi, or whatever type of sashimi you prefer into a 2" by 2" by 10" log so all that is left is to slice it thinly, vacum seal it, and then deep freeze it. On day of departure, wrap the vacum sealed fish in newspaper – that acts as a great insulator and the fish will take several hours to defrost.

For sashimi, first combine the soy and true citrus packets to make ponzu (or yuou can run straight soy if you prefer, mix some wasibi powder with water to make wasabi sauce, slice the fish thinly, drizzle soy/ponzu/wasabi/sirachi over the fish, garnish with avo if you want, and enjoy.

For sushi rolls, cold rehydrate the rice about an hour before you plan on eating, add some rice vinegar, and then roll rice, avo and fish in the nori. Dip in soy/wasabi/sirachi to taste.

BAKED BRIE: I love this stuff, it's super simple, can be done n a fire, oven, etc.

You'll need:
Brie
one of those tubes of premade crescent roll pastry dough
Cranberries (not required)
Almonds (not required)
Brown sugar, etc etc etc

To prepare, simply grease up your pot/pan/dutch oven, pop open the tube of pastry dough, wrap the brie in it (add cranberries, almonds, brown sugar, or anything else you want to it, and bake until the pastry is golden brown, turning if it is cooking unevenly.

By the time the pastry is browned, the brie will be all melty/bubbly on the interior. Enjoy with a glass of wine.

Phad Thai: This is a great, delicious meal that covers just about everything with a healthy dose of carbs, proteins, salt, and fat.

7oz chicken packet
1/2 a medium bell pepper, diced
1/2 oz soy
EVOO packet
sesame oil packet
1 packet Justins peanut butter
2 oz crushed peanuts
1 packet thai chili sauce (optional for those that like heat)
Noodles (I like to get good qualityu ones from the local 99 ranch, but you can get away with ramen)
1 packet sunbird phad thai seasoning mix.

-Saute chicken and diced bell pepper in the EVOO, set aside.
-Combine seasoning packet, 1/2 cup water, sesame oil, soy and thai chili sauce, stir together, heat and then set aside.
-FBC noodles, add sauce, crushed peanuts, chicken, bell peppers and peanut butter, mix well and serve.

Optional: add sauteed wild onions, trout, etc

Balsalmic bowtie (cold) pasta salad.

Bowtie pasta salad
Artichoke hearts in oil package from cost plus
Kalamata olives in oil
pine nuts
chicken package
package balsalmic vinagrette salad dressing (or italian, or whatever suits your tas
black pepper

Pre trip: Boil bowtie pasta, dehydrate

Prep: Add cold water to bowtie pasta, allow to rehydrate, add pine nuts, olives, artichoke hearts, chicken, mix well, add pepper to taste, enjoy.

Trail enchiladas:

tortillas – small corn or flour depending on taste
canned enchilada sauce
chicken packet
small bell pepper, diced (optional)
tomato (optional)
shelf stable single serving string cheese packets – number depends on nummber of people you are serving.
tapatio packets (optional)
Powdered sour cream

-At home, dehydrate enchilada sauce
-on the trail, rehydrate enchilada sauce
-Add chicken and powdered sour cream to enchilada sauce, simmer over a fire or on low for 10-15 minutes
-shred the string cheese
-reserve about 1/3 of the sauce, pour a small amount in the bottom of your baking pan
-place a tortilla in your baking pan (I use a msr bakelite with an alumunum lid), add some chicken, shredded cheese, bell peppers, and sauce, roll the tortilla, repeat until the whole pan is full of tortillas, pour reserved 1/3 of sauce over rolled tortillas, top with remaining shredded cheese, and bake until cheese on top is golden brown…

top with tapatio

Another really easy but amazing thing to make is cheesecake. Simply buy a jello no bake cheeschake, premix the "filling" powder with some nido at home, and bring ghee with you on the trail. To make it, mix the ghee with the crust mix and put the crust in a fry pan (the MSR abkelight is the perfect size, add cold water to the filling mix, stir it together and pour it into the frypan on top of the crust, give it about 5 minutes to set up and top with a packet of caramel or chocolate or any flavor of jam you want and you have an amazing backcountry desert…

Something I hesitate to talk about is wild foods, simply because mis-IDing can lead to big problems. So do not, ever ever ever eeeever eat something you don't 100% positivly ID. That being said, what is more UL than foraging for food along the trail?

A couple of my favorites are Miners Lettuce and wild onions. For the adventurous, there are tons of edible mushrooms out there as well. Rather than give specific recipies, I'll just give a couple examples of how they can be used.

Miners lettuce: Has a great crunch and is delightful in salads, and high in vitamins. Also, when sauteed, it has a very similar taste and texture to cooked spinach, so can be added to pastas, as a pizza topping, or anything else you would normally add cooked spinach too (I like to put it in enchiladas).

Wild onions: Great sauteed with trout (nom nom), or really with anything you want to add onion flavor to, also great chopped and added to salads, soups, stews, pastas, etc.

Mushrooms: Sliced and sauteed chantrelles are about as versatile a food as you can get: Stews, pastas, you can even mix them into pastries (look up chanterelle puffs) to give foods a rich, buttery flavor. Top trail pizzas with them, or mix them with crumbled campfire-smoked trout, some sauteed wild onions, sauteed miners lettuce, crumbled bacon and top toasted baugette slices for back country crostinis… the list goes on. Morels are great stuffed, or added to pastas, and boletes work great in soup. Again, ID is key, and never eat something in the backcountry unless 1)you have positivly ID'd it, and 2) you have eaten it at home so you know you are not allergic to it.

I dehydrate the turkey at home. I've used this on two group backpacks and everyone liked it, several said it was the best meal on that trip.

The quantities below make a large meal for each person. The only boy who did not eat all of it was a smaller, younger boy.

In a ziplock freezer bag combine these ingredients

2 tbs dried beans
2 tbs brown minute rice (better flavor than white rice)
2 tbs Idahoan 4 cheese instant potatoes

2 tsp dried taco seasoning (Costco one has good flavor)
1/2 cup of dried ground turkey (I use a larger amount of turkey for the protein)
1/4 cup of freeze dried sharp cheddar (Rainy Day foods has the best tasting one although I hate their shipping speed -6 weeks is what they quote so you need to order way in advance.)

Trader Joe's Tortillas mentioned bin a previous post: Whether I bring these or not depends on the day on the trail forI am bringing the food. If it's day 1, I bring them. After that, I hate carrying the weight, so I might bring crushed corn chips to add to it after it rehydrates or add freeze dried or dehydrated corn or just eat it out of the bag without the tortillas.

On the trail: Add hot water until it just covers the ingredients. Seal the bag, Keep it covered with a bandana or bag cozy. Gently squish the ingredients around- about ten minutes until it's ready to eat. Wrap it in a tortilla or just eat it out of the freezer bag.

I bring out jambalaya or a dehydrated gumbo on most of my trips. I also don't worry about my andouille unless its in my pack for more than 4 days(same with a good quality hotdog but those are usually done on the first night). These have curing salts in them or have been smoked. Cured meats have a pretty good shelf life. I also bring a good amount of bacon for my breakfasts or to add to my ramen or to my instant mashers etc. cook a lb of bacon before you leave so you're only bringing 1/3 lb on the trail with you(crisp up the bacon for 10-20 seconds in a pan if you like).

-Loki

I usually think about gourmet food as a dish that is elevated as a result of the quality or freshness of its ingredients. I enjoy cooking and eating well, but prefer to do my preparations at home. On the trail I tend to favor a small pot, minimal prep approach.

Breakfast:

Breakfast burritos. Eggs with ramps and morels. This is a favorite springtime meal. I use freeze dried egg, but elevate the flavor with fresh foraged delicacies.

Along the same lines:

Bean burritos with sliced ramp greens and bulbs

Lunch:

Artisanal cured meats and cheeses. I'm very partial to the olli salumeria pastured pork salamis. Shown here is Zingerman's lantjaeger and aged gouda.

Dinner:

Absolute favorite is pasta with a spicy homemade san marzano tomato sauce. Sometimes though, a simple stew made from unique ingredients and paired with a little firelit ambiance is all it takes.

1.5 lb meat of any type
1 onion, diced
2 cans kidney beans
about 10-14 fingerling potatoes
1/4 cup barley
Stock to cover
salt, pepper, garlic, oregano

Place all in crockpot and cook 18-24 hours until uniformly brown and falling apart. Mash potatoes with fork prior to dehydrating.

Serves 2 people. For the gourmet meal when it's raining and late and you don't to spend time cooking.
2.5 oz prosciutto
3 oz Ig Vella Dry Jack cheese
3 oz Trader Joe's Raisin Rosemary Crisps
2 oz dry pears
2 oz Sweet and Spicy Candied Pecans
2 oz Port

INGREDIENTS:
2.5 links Tofu Sausage
1 cup Mushrooms(dried amount)
1/3 cup Jalapeños(dried & powdered amount)
1 cup Red Peppers(dried amount)

TOMATO/RICE BARK:
1 cup Brown & Wild Rice Mix(uncooked)
1 jar Tomato Basil Sauce(~1Litre)

Cut & dehydrate sausage, mushrooms, red peppers & jalapeños. Cook rice. Add tomato sauce to finished rice(see note). Blend down to increase surface area but not so much, as to create baby food. Pour rice & tomato mix(about 4 cups worth) onto parchment paper covered trays & dehydrate. Whizz up dried jalapeños into a fine powder(careful not to accidentally inhale!). Combine ingredients(now dry) together into your chosen packaging(ie bag). Wrap & keep extra toppings separate. Adjust measurements according to desired outcome of taste and weight.

EXTRA TOPPINGS:
Parmesan, Roasted Almond Slices, Cashews

REHYDRATION/COOKING:
Place ingredient(minus extra toppings) into pot. Pour water over until just covered. Let sit for 15-20mins. Cook for ~5min covered. Insulate for about 15mins. Portion pictured weighed 5oz dry.

NOTES, REFERENCES & THOUGHTS:
1-Costco's Kirkland marinara was cooked down & mixed with a home made Jamie Oliver's tomato basil sauce found here: "http://caloriecount.about.com/jamie-olivers-simple-tomato-basil-recipe-r565793". I used less oil than the recipe called for and added some fresh tomatoes.

2-The idea to make bark from rice & pasta sauce came from here: http://www.backpackingchef.com/

3-The sausage brand used was Tofurky® Italian Sausage. Be sure to slice thinly to make for better rehydration times.

4-Add more or less Jalapeño powder according to how much you fancy heat & the hotness of pepper used.

5-Rice & tomato amounts where mixed by eye while tasting for flavour. It should taste good before drying.

6-I used a version of the "Magic Bullet" for all of my "blending & whizzing". Be sure to use a dry jar when powdering the jalapeños.

Wow, that looks tasty. I will need to give it a go! Thanks for posting this, always looking for good vegan ideas for the trail.

Dirk

Here's a different style of tortilla pizza than what was posted on the first page.

My friend and I just made these last night for the first time, and they were the best on-trail food I've ever had. They're also very simple. All you need are:
– hot coals
– a flat rock
– tortillas (small ones work best)
– pepperoni/salami
– pizza sauce in a squeeze tube
– mozzarella/colby-jack cheese blocks

I squirted some sauce on the tortilla, spread it around with a pepperoni slice, put pepperoni all over the tortilla, put cheese on one half, folded it in half, and left it on the hot rock (which was in the coals) for 15 minutes or so.

They were warm, filling, easy, and absolutely delicious.

Ah, but do you deliver?

Cheers